Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

CHAP. 36.—ARTISTS WHO PAINTED WITH THE PENCIL.

In the ninetieth Olympiad lived Aglaophon,1 Cephisodorus,
Erillus, and Evenor, the father of Parrhasius, one of the
greatest of painters, and of whom we shall have to speak
when we come to the period at which he flourished. All
these were artists of note, but not sufficiently so to detain us
by any further details, in our haste to arrive at the luminaries
of the art; first among whom shone Apollodorus of Athens,
in the ninety-third Olympiad. He was the first to paint
objects as they really appeared; the first too, we may justly
say, to confer glory2 by the aid of the pencil.3 Of this artist
there is a Priest in Adoration, and an Ajax struck by Lightning,
a work to be seen at Pergamus at the present day:
before him, there is no painting of any artist now to be seen
which has the power of rivetting the eye.

The gates of art being now thrown open by Apollodorus,
Zeuxis of Heraclea4 entered upon the scene, in the fourth year
of the ninety-fifth Olympiad, destined to lead the pencil—for
it is of the pencil that we are still speaking—a pencil for
which there was nothing too arduous, to a very high pitch of
glory. By some writers he is erroneously placed in the
eighty-ninth Olympiad, a date that must of necessity be reserved
for Demophilus of Himera and Neseus of Thasos, of
one of whom, it is uncertain which, Zeuxis was the pupil.
It was in reference to him that Apollodorus, above-mentioned,
wrote a verse to the effect, that Zeuxis had stolen the art
from others and had taken it all to himself.5 Zeuxis also
acquired such a vast amount of wealth, that, in a spirit of
ostentation, he went so far as to parade himself at Olympia
with his name embroidered on the checked pattern of his
garments in letters of gold. At a later period, he came to the
determination to give away his works, there being no price
high enough to pay for them, he said. Thus, for instance,
he gave an Alcmena to the people of Agrigentum, and a Pan
to Archelaüs.6 He also painted a Penelope, in which the
peculiar character of that matron appears to be delineated to
the very life; and a figure of an athlete, with which he was
so highly pleased, that he wrote beneath it the line which has
since become so famous, to the effect that it would be easier
to find fault with him than to imitate him.7 His Jupiter
seated on the throne, with the other Deities standing around
him, is a magnificent production: the same, too, with his
Infant Hercules strangling the Dragons, in presence of Amphitryon
and his mother Alcmena, who is struck with horror.
Still, however, Zeuxis is generally censured for making the
heads and articulations of his figures out of proportion. And
yet, so scrupulously careful was he, that on one occasion, when
he was about to execute a painting for the people of Agrigentum,8
to be consecrated in the Temple of the Lacinian
Juno there, he had the young maidens of the place stripped
for examination, and selected five of them, in order to adopt
in his picture the most commendable points in the form of
each. He also painted some monochromes in white.9

The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes,
Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius. (10.) This last, it
is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who
represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds
flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited.
Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn with
such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the
judgment which had been passed upon his work by the birds,
haughtily demanded that the curtain should be drawn aside to
let the picture be seen. Upon finding his mistake, with a great
degree of ingenuous candour he admitted that he had been
surpassed, for that whereas he himself had only deceived the
birds, Parrhasius had deceived him, an artist.

There is a story, too, that at a later period, Zeuxis having
painted a child carrying grapes, the birds came to peck at them;
upon which, with a similar degree of candour, he expressed
himself vexed with his work, and exclaimed—" I have surely
painted the grapes better than the child, for if I had fully
succeeded in the last, the birds would have been in fear of
it." Zeuxis executed some figures also in clay,10 the only
works of art that were left behind at Ambracia, when Fulvius
Nobilior11 transported the Muses from that city to Rome. There
is at Rome a Helena by Zeuxis, in the Porticos of Philippus,12
and a Marsyas Bound, in the Temple of Concord13 there.

Parrhasius of Ephesus also contributed greatly to the progress
of painting, being the first to give symmetry to his
figures, the first to give play and expression to the features,
elegance to the hair, and gracefulness to the mouth: indeed,
for contour, it is universally admitted by artists that he bore
away the palm. This, in painting, is the very highest point
of skill. To paint substantial bodies and the interior of
objects is a great thing, no doubt, but at the same time it is a
point in which many have excelled: but to make the extreme
outline of the figure, to give the finishing touches to the
painting in rounding off the contour, this is a point of success
in the art which is but rarely attained. For the extreme
outline, to be properly executed, requires to be nicely rounded,
and so to terminate as to prove the existence of something
more behind it, and thereby disclose that which it also serves
to hide.

Such is the merit conceded to Parrhasius by Antigonus14
and Xenocrates,15 who have written on the art of painting;
and in this as well as in other points, not only do they admit
his excellence, but enlarge upon it in terms of the highest
commendation. There are many pen sketches by him still in
existence, both upon panel and on parchment, from the study
of which, even artists, it is said, may greatly profit.

Notwithstanding these points of excellence, however, Parrhasius
seems comparatively inferior to himself in giving the
proper expression to the middle of the body. In his allegorical
picture of the People of Athens, he has displayed
singular ingenuity in the treatment of his subject; for in
representing it, he had to depict it as at once fickle, choleric,
unjust, and versatile; while, again, he had equally to show its
attributes of implacability16 and clemency, compassionateness
and pride, loftiness and humility, fierceness and timidity—
and all these at once. He painted a Theseus also, which was
formerly in the Capitol at Rome, a Naval Commander17 wearing
a cuirass, and, in one picture, now at Rhodes, figures of
Meleager, Hercules, and Perseus. This last painting, though
it has been thrice struek by lightning, has escaped being
effaced, a circumstance which tends to augment the admiration
which it naturally excites. He painted an Archigallus18
also, a picture which the Emperor Tiberius greatly
admired. According to Deculo,19 that prince had it shut up in
his chamber, the price at which it was valued being six
hundred thousand sesterces.

Parrhasius also painted a Thracian Nurse, with an Infant
in her arms, a Philiscus,20 a Father Liber21 attended by Virtue,
Two Children, in which we see pourtrayed the careless simplicity
of childhood, and a Priest attended by a Boy, with a
censer and chaplet. There are also two most noble pictures
by him; one of which represents a Runner22 contending for the
prize, completely armed, so naturally depicted that he has all
the appearance of sweating. In the other we see the Runner
taking off his armour, and can fancy that we hear him panting
aloud for breath. His Æneas, Castor, and Pollux, all represented
in the same picture, are highly praised; his Telephus also,
and his Achilles, Agamemnon, and Ulysses.

Parrhasius was a most prolific artist, but at the same time
there was no one who enjoyed the glory conferred upon him by
his talent with greater insolence and arrogance. It was in this
spirit, that he went so far as to assume certain surnames, and
to call himself "Habrodiætus;"23 while in some other verses
he declared himself to be the "prince of painters," and asserted
that in him the art had arrived at perfection. But above all
things, it was a boast with him that he had sprung from the
lineage of Apollo, and that he had painted his Hercules, a
picture now at Lindos, just as he had often seen him in his
sleep. It was in this spirit, too, that upon being defeated by
Timanthes, at Samos, by a great majority of votes, the subject
of the picture being Ajax and the Award of the Arms,24 he
declared, in the name of his hero, that he felt himself quite
disgraced on thus seeing himself a second time defeated by an
unworthy opponent. He painted also some smaller pictures of
an immodest nature, indulging his leisure in such prurient
fancies as these.25

As to Timanthes,26 he was an artist highly gifted with
genius, and loud have some of the orators27 been in their commendations
of his Iphigenia, represented as she stands at the
altar awaiting her doom. Upon the countenance of all present,
that of her uncle28 in particular, grief was depicted; but
having already exhausted all the characteristic features of
sorrow, the artist adopted the device of veiling the features
of the victim's father,29 finding himself unable adequately to
give expression to his feelings. There are also some other
proofs of his genius, a Sleeping Cyclops, for instance, which he
has painted upon a small panel; but, being desirous to convey an
idea of his gigantic stature, he has painted some Satyrs near
him measuring his thumb with a thyrsus. Indeed, Timanthes
is the only one among the artists in whose works there is
always something more implied by the pencil than is expressed,
and whose execution, though of the very highest quality, is
always surpassed by the inventiveness of his genius. He has
also painted the figure of a Hero, a master-piece of skill, in
which he has carried the art to the very highest pitch of per-
fection, in the delineation of the warrior: this last-mentioned
work is now at Rome, in the Temple of Peace.30

It was at this period, too, that Euxinidas had for his pupil
Aristides,31 who became a most illustrious artist; and that
Eupompus instructed Pamphilus, who afterwards became the
instructor of Apelles. There is by Eupompus, a Victor in a
gymnastic contest, holding a palm. So high was the reputation
of this artist, that he established a school of painting, and
so divided the art into three styles; whereas till then there had
been but two, known respectively as the Helladic32 and the
Asiatic. In honour of him, a native of Sicyon by birth, the
Helladic school was divided into two, and from this period
there were three distinct styles recognized, the Ionic, the
Sicyonian, and the Attic.

We have, by Pamphilus,33 a picture representing the Alliance
and the Battle that was fought at Phlius;34 the Victory35 also
that was gained by the Athenians, and a representation of
Ulysses in his ship. He was a Macedonian by birth, but was
the first painter who was also skilled in all the other sciences,
arithmetic and geometry more particularly, without the aid of
which he maintained that the pictorial art could not attain
perfection. He gave instruction to no one for a smaller sum
than one talent, at the rate of five hundred denarii per
annum,36 and this fee both Apelles and Melanthius paid. It
was through his influence that, first at Sicyon, and then
throughout the whole of Greece, all children of free birth were
taught the graphic37 art, or in other words, the art of depicting
upon boxwood, before all others; in consequence of which this
came to be looked upon as the first step in the liberal arts. It
is the fact, however, that this art has always been held in high
estimation, and cultivated by persons of free birth, and that, at a
more recent period, men of rank even began to pursue it; it
having always been forbidden that slaves should receive instruction
in it. Hence it is, that neither in painting nor in the
toreutic38 art has there been any celebrated work executed by
a slave.

In the hundred and seventh Olympiad, flourished Aëtion and
Therimachus.39 By the former we have some fine pictures; a
Father Liber,40 Tragedy and Comedy, Semiramis from the rank
of a slave elevated to the throne, an Old Woman bearing
torches, and a New-made Bride, remarkable for the air of
modesty with which she is pourtrayed.

But it was Apelles41 of Cos, in the hundred and twelfth
Olympiad, who surpassed all the other painters who either
preceded or succeeded him. Single-handed, he contributed
more to painting than all the others together, and even went
so far as to publish some treatises on the principles of the art.
The great point of artistic merit with him was his singular charm
of gracefulness,42 and this too, though the greatest of painters
were his contemporaries. In admiring their works and bestowing
high eulogiums upon them, he used to say that there
was still wanting in them that ideal of beauty43 so peculiar to
himself, and known to the Greeks as "Charis;"44 others, he said,
had acquired all the other requisites of perfection, but in this one
point he himself had no equal. He also asserted his claim to
another great point of merit: admiring a picture by Protogenes,
which bore evident marks of unbounded laboriousness and the
most minute finish, he remarked that in every respect Protogenes
was fully his equal, or perhaps his superior, except in
this, that he himself knew when to take his hand off a
picture—a memorable lesson, which teaches us that over-carefulness
may be productive of bad results. His candour
too, was equal to his talent; he acknowledged the superiority
of Melanthius in his grouping, and of Asclepiodorus in the
niceness of his measurements, or, in other words, the distances
that ought to be left between the objects represented.

A circumstance that happened to him in connection with
Protogenes is worthy of notice. The latter was living at Rhodes,
when Apelles disembarked there, desirous of seeing the works
of a man whom he had hitherto only known by reputation.
Accordingly, he repaired at once to the studio; Protogenes
was not at home, but there happened to be a large panel
upon the easel ready for painting, with an old woman who
was left in charge. To his enquiries she made answer, that
Protogenes was not at home, and then asked whom she
should name as the visitor. "Here he is," was the reply of
Apelles, and seizing a brush, he traced with colour upon the
panel an outline of a singularly minute fineness. Upon his
return, the old woman mentioned to Protogenes what had
happened. The artist, it is said, upon remarking the delicacy
of the touch, instantly exclaimed that Apelles must have been
the visitor, for that no other person was capable of executing
anything so exquisitely perfect. So saying, he traced within
the same outline a still finer outline, but with another colour,
and then took his departure, with instructions to the woman
to show it to the stranger, if he returned, and to let him know
that this was the person whom he had come to see. It happened
as he anticipated; Apelles returned, and vexed at finding
himself thus surpassed, he took up another colour and split45
both of the outlines, leaving no possibility of anything finer being
executed. Upon seeing this, Protogenes admitted that he was
defeated, and at once flew to the harbour to look for his guest.
He thought proper, too, to transmit the panel to posterity, just
as it was, and it always continued to be held in the highest
admiration by all, artists in particular. I am told that it was
burnt in the first fire which took place at Cæsar's palace on
the Palatine Hill; but in former times I have often stopped
to admire it. Upon its vast surface it contained nothing
whatever except the three outlines, so remarkably fine as to
escape the sight: among the most elaborate works of numerous
other artists it had all the appearance of a blank space; and
yet by that very fact it attracted the notice of every one, and
was held in higher estimation than any other painting there.

It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously
adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be,
without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other; a
practice which has now passed into a proverb.46 It was also
a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit
it to the view of the passers-by in some exposed place;47 while
he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the
criticisms that were passed upon it; it being his opinion that
the judgment of the public was preferable to his own, as being
the more discerning of the two. It was under these circumstances,
they say, that he was censured by a shoemaker for
having represented the shoes with one shoe-string too little.
The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former
error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticize the
leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head
out, and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion
beyond the shoes, a piece of advice which has equally passed into
a proverbial saying.48 In fact, Apelles was a person of great
amenity of manners, a circumstance which rendered him particularly
agreeable to Alexander the Great, who would often
come to his studio. He had forbidden himself, by public edict,
as already stated,49 to be represented by any other artist. On
one occasion, however, when the prince was in his studio,
talking a great deal about painting without knowing anything
about it, Apelles quietly begged that he would quit the sub-
ject, telling him that he would get laughed at by the boys who
were there grinding the colours: so great was the influence
which he rightfully possessed over a monarch, who was otherwise
of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as he was,
Alexander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high
estimation in which he held him; for having, in his admiration
of her extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint
Pancaste undraped,50 the most beloved of all his concubines,
the artist while so engaged, fell in love with her; upon which,
Alexander, perceiving this to be the case, made him a present
of her, thus showing himself, though a great king in courage,
a still greater one in self-command, this action redounding no
less to his honour than any of his victories. For in thus conquering
himself, not only did he sacrifice his passions in
favour of the artist, but even his affections as well; uninfluenced,
too, by the feelings which must have possessed his favourite
in thus passing at once from the arms of a monarch to
those of a painter. Some persons are of opinion that Pancaste
was the model of Apelles in his painting of Venus Anadyomene.51

It was Apelles too, who, courteous even to his rivals, first
established the reputation of Protogenes at Rhodes. Held as
he was in little estimation by his own fellow-countrymen,
a thing that generally52 is the case, Apelles enquired of him
what price he set upon certain finished works of his, which
he had on hand. Upon Protogenes mentioning some very
trifling sum or other, Apelles made him an offer of fifty talents,
and then circulated a report that he was buying these works
in order to sell them as his own. By this contrivance, he
aroused the Rhodians to a better appreciation of the merits
of their artist, and only consented to leave the pictures with
them upon their offering a still larger price.

He painted portraits, too, so exactly to the life, that a fact
with which we are made acquainted by the writings of Apion
the grammarian seems altogether incredible. One of those
persons, he says, who divine events by the traits of the fea-
tures, and are known as "metoposcopi,"53 was enabled, by an
examination of his portraits, to tell the year of their death,
whether past or future, of each person represented. Apelles
had been on bad terms with Ptolemæus in former times, when
they formed part of the suite of Alexander. After Ptolemæus
had become king of Egypt, it so happened that Apolles was
driven by the violence of a tempest to Alexandria. Upon this,
some of his rivals fraudulently suborned a jester, who was attached
to the court, to carry him an invitation to dine with the
king. Accordingly, Apelles attended; upon which Ptolemæus
was highly indignant, and, summoning before him his stewards54
of the household, requested that the artist would point out the
one that had given him the invitation. Thus challenged,
Apelles seized a piece of quenched charcoal that lay in the
fire-place, and traced a likeness upon the wall, with such exactness,
that the king, the moment he began it, recognized the
features as those of the jester. He also painted a portrait of
King Antigonus;55 and as that monarch was blind of one eye, he
invented a method of concealing the defect. With this object,
he painted him in profile, in order that what in reality was
wanting to the person might have the semblance of being
wanting to the picture rather, he making it his care to show
that side of the face only which he could show without any
defect. Among his works, too, there are some figures representing
persons at the point of death; but it is not easy to say
which of his productions are of the highest order of excellence.

His Venus Rising from the Sea, known as the Venus Anadyomene,56
was consecrated by the late Emperor Augustus in the
Temple57 of his father58 Cæsar; a work which has been cele-
brated in certain Greek lines,59 which, though they have out-
lived it, have perpetuated its fame.60 The lower part of the
picture having become damaged, no one could be found to
repair it; and thus did the very injury which the picture had
sustained, redound to the glory of the artist. Time, however,
and damp at last effaced the painting, and Nero, in his reign,
had it replaced by a copy, painted by the hand of Dorotheus.61
Apelles also commenced another Venus for the people of Cos,62
which would have outshone even the former one; but death
invidiously prevented its completion, nor could any one be
found to complete the work in conformity with the sketches of
the outline. He painted also, in the Temple of Diana at
Ephesus, Alexander the Great wielding the Thunderbolts, a
picture for which he received twenty talents of gold. The
fingers have all the appearance of projecting from the surface,
and the lightning seems to be darting from the picture.
And then, too, let the reader bear in mind that all these works
were executed by the aid of four63 colours only. The price
paid in golden coin for this picture was ascertained by weight,64
there being no specific sum agreed upon.

He also painted a Procession of the Megabyzus,65 the priest
of Diana at Ephesus; and a Clitus66 on Horseback, hastening to the combat, his Armour-bearer handing him his helmet
at his command. How many times he painted Alexander and
Philip, it would be quite superfluous to attempt to enumerate.
At Samos, there is a Habron67 by him, that is greatly admired;
at Rhodes a Menander,68 king of Caria, and an Ancæus;69 at
Alexandria, a Gorgosthenes, the Tragedian; and at Rome, a Castor
and Pollux, with figures of Victory and Alexander the Great,
and an emblematical figure of War with her hands tied behind
her, and Alexander seated in a triumphal car; both of
which pictures the late Emperor Augustus, with a great degree
of moderation70 and good taste, consecrated in the most frequented
parts of his Forum: the Emperor Claudius, however,
thought it advisable to efface the head of Alexander in both
pictures, and substitute likenesses of his predecessor Augustus.
It is by his hand too, it is generally supposed, that the Hercules,
with the face averted, now in the Temple of Anna,71 was
painted; a picture in which, one of the greatest difficulties in
the art, the face, though hidden, may be said to be seen rather
than left to the imagination. He also painted a figure of a
naked72 Hero,73 a picture in which he has challenged Nature
herself.

There exists too, or did exist, a Horse that was painted by
him for a pictorial contest; as to the merits of which, Apelles
appealed from the judgment of his fellow-men to that of the
dumb quadrupeds. For, finding that by their intrigues his
rivals were likely to get the better of him, he had some horses
brought, and the picture of each artist successively shown to
them. Accordingly, it was only at the sight of the horse
painted by Apelles that they began to neigh; a thing that has
always been the case since, whenever this test of his artistic
skill has been employed. He also painted a Neoptolemus74 on
horse-back, fighting with the Persians; an Archeläus,75 with
his Wife and Daughter; and an Antigonus on foot, with a
cuirass on, and his horse led by his side. Connoisseurs in the
art give the preference, before all other works of his, to his
paintings of King Archeläus on horseback, and of Diana
in the midst of a throng of Virgins performing a sacrifice;
a work in which he would appear to have surpassed
the lines76 of Homer descriptive of the same subject. He
also portrayed some things, which in reality do not admit
of being portrayed—thunder, lightning, and thunderbolts, in
pictures which are known by the respective names of Bronte,
Astrape, and Ceraunobolia.

His inventions, too, in the art of painting, have been highly
serviceable to others; but one thing there was in which no one
could imitate him. When his works were finished, he used to
cover them with a black varnish, of such remarkable thinness,
that while by the reflection it gave more vivacity to the colours,
and preserved them from the contact of dust and dirt, its
existence could only be detected by a person when close enough
to touch it.77 In addition to this, there was also this other
great advantage attending it: the brightness of the colours
was softened thereby, and harmonized to the sight, looking as
though they had been viewed from a distance, and through a
medium of specular-stone;78 the contrivance, by some indescribable
means, giving a sombreness to colours which would otherwise
have been too florid.

One of the contemporaries of Apelles was Aristides79 of
Thebes; the first of all the painters to give full expression to
the mind80 and passions of man, known to the Greeks us ἤθη,
as well as to the mental perturbations which we experience:
he was somewhat harsh, however, in his colours. There is a
picture by him of a Captured City, in which is represented an
infant crawling toward the breast of its wounded mother, who,
though at the point of death, has all the appearance of being
aware of it, and of being in dread lest the child should suck
blood in place of milk from her exhausted breast: this picture
Alexander the Great ordered to be transferred to Pella, his
native place. Aristides also painted a Battle with the Persians,
a picture which contained one hundred figures, for each
of which he was paid at the rate of ten minæ by Mnason, the
tyrant of Elatea.81 He also painted Chariots with four horses
in full career; a Suppliant, which almost speaks, Huntsmen
with game; Leontion, the mistress of Epicurus; the Anapauomenc,82
a damsel pining to death from love for her brother;
a Father Liber83 also, and an Artamene, two fine pictures now
to be seen in the Temple of Ceres84 at Rome; a Tragedian and
a Child, in the Temple of Apollo,85 a picture which has lost its
beauty, owing to the unskilfulness of the painter to whom M.
Junius, the prætor, entrusted the cleaning of it, about the
period of the Apollinarian Games.86 There was also to be
seen, in the Temple of Faith, in the Capitol, a picture of his,
representing an Aged Man giving instructions to a Child on
the lyre. He executed also a painting of an Invalid, upon
which endless encomiums have been lavished. Indeed, so great
was the excellence of this artist, that King Attalus, it is said,
purchased one picture of his at the price of one hundred
talents.

At the same period87 flourished Protogenes, as already stated.
He was a native of Caunus,88 a place held in subjection by the
Rhodians. Great poverty in his early days, and extreme
application to his art, were the causes of his comparative unproductiveness.
It is not known with certainty from whom
he received his instruction in the art: indeed some say that he
was only a ship-decorator down to his fiftieth year; a proof of
which, it is asserted, is the fact, that in decorating the Propylæum89
of the Temple of Minerva, situate in one of the most
celebrated spots in Athens, where he has painted the fine picture90
of Paralus and Hammonias, known by some as the
Nausicaa, he has added in the side pieces of the picture, by
painters called "parerga," several small ships of war;91 wishing
thereby to show in what department that skill had first
manifested itself which had thus reached the citadel of Athens,
the scene of his glory. Of all his compositions, however, the
palm has been awarded to his Ialysus,92 now at Rome, consecrated
in the Temple of Peace there. So long as he was at
work upon it, he lived, it is said, upon nothing but soaked
lupines; by which means he at once appeased both hunger and
thirst, and avoided all risk of blunting his perception by too
delicate a diet. In order to protect this picture against the effects
of ill-usage and old age, he painted it over four times,93 so that
when an upper coat might fail, there would be an under one to
succeed it. There is in this picture the figure of a dog,
which was completed in a very remarkable manner, inasmuch
as accident had an equal share with design in the execution of
it. The painter was of opinion that he had not given the
proper expression to the foam at the mouth of the animal,
panting for breath, as it was represented; while, with all
other parts of the picture, a thing extremely difficult with him,
he was perfectly satisfied. The thing that displeased him was,
the evident traces of art in the execution of it, touches which
did not admit of any diminution, and yet had all the appearance
of being too laboured, the effect produced being far removed
from his conception of the reality: the foam, in fact,
bore the marks of being painted, and not of being the natural
secretion of the animal's mouth. Vexed and tormented
by this dilemma, it being his wish to depict truth itself, and
not something that only bore a semblance of truth, he effaced
it again and again, changed his pencil for another, and yet by
no possibility could satisfy himself. At last, quite out of temper
with an art, which, in spite of him, would still obtrude
itself, he dashed his sponge against the vexatious spot; when
behold: the sponge replaced the colours that it had just removed,
exactly in accordance with his utmost wishes, and thus did
chance represent Nature in a painting.

Following his example, Nealces,94 it is said, succeeded in
representing the foam at a horse's mouth; for on one occasion,
when engaged in painting a man holding in a pair of horses
and soothing them with his voice,95 he also dashed his sponge
against the picture, with the view of producing a like effect.

It was on account of this Ialysus, which he was apprehensive
of destroying, that King Demetrius96 forbore to set fire to
the only side of the city of Rhodes by which it was capable of
being taken; and thus, in his anxiety to spare a picture, did
he lose his only opportunity of gaining a victory. The
dwelling of Protogenes at this period was situate in a little
garden in the suburbs, or in other words, in the midst of the
camp of Demetrius. The combats that were taking place
made no difference whatever to the artist, and in no way interrupted
his proceeding with the works which he had commenced;
until at last he was summoned before the king, who
enquired how he could have the assurance thus to remain without
the walls. "Because I know," was his answer, "that you
are waging war with the Rhodians, and not with the arts."
Upon this, the king, delighted at having the opportunity of
protecting the hand which he had thus spared, ordered a
guard to be placed at his disposal for the especial purpose of
his protection. In order, too, that he might not distract the
artist's attention by sending for him too often, he would often
go, an enemy albeit, to pay him a visit, and, abandoning his
aspirations for victory, in the midst of arms and the battering
down of walls, would attentively examine the compositions of the
painter. Even to this day, the story is still attached to the
picture which he was then engaged upon, to the effect, that
Protogenes painted it beneath the sword. It is his Satyr,
known as the "Anapauomenos;"97 in whose hand, to mark the
sense of security that he felt, the painter has placed a pair of
pipes.

Protogenes executed also, a Cydippe; a Tlepolemus; a
portrait of Philiscus, the tragic poet, in an attitude of meditation;
an Athlete; a portrait of King Antigonus, and one of
the mother of Aristotle.98 It was this philosopher too, who
advised him to paint the exploits of Alexander the Great, as
being certain to be held in everlasting remembrance. The
impulse, however, of his natural disposition, combined with a
certain artistic caprice, led him in preference to adopt the
various subjects which have just been mentioned. His last
works were representations of Alexander and the god Pan.
He also executed some figures in bronze, as already99 stated.

At the same period also, lived Asclepiodorus,100 who was
greatly admired by Apelles for his proportions. The tyrant
Mnason101 paid him, for his picture of the Twelve Gods, at the
rate of thirty minæ for each divinity. This same Mnason also
paid Theomnestus twenty minæ for each of his Heroes.

In addition to these, it is only proper to mention Nicomachus,102
the son and disciple of Aristiæus. He painted a Rape of
Proserpina, a picture that was formerly in the Temple of
Minerva in the Capitol, above the shrine of Juventas.103 Another
picture of his was to be seen also in the Capitol, placed there by
the Roman general Plancus,104 a Victory soaring aloft in a
chariot: he was the first painter who represented Ulysses
wearing the pileus.105 He painted also an Apollo and Diana;
the Mother106 of the Gods seated on a Lion; the fine picture
of the Bacchantes, with Satyrs moving stealthily towards
them; and a Scylla, now at Rome in the Temple of Peace.
No painter ever worked with greater rapidity than Nicomachus;
indeed it is said, that on one occasion having entered
into an engagement with Aristratus,107 the tyrant of Sicyon, to
paint within a given time the monument which he was raising
to the memory of the poet Telestis,108 the artist only arrived a
few days before the expiration of the term; upon which, the
tyrant was so angry that he threatened to punish him: however, in the few days that were left, Nicomachus, to the admiration
of all, completed the work, with equal promptitude
and success. Among his pupils, were his brother Ariston, his
son Aristides, and Philoxenus of Eretria, who painted for
King Cassander a picture representing one of the battles between
Alexander and Darius, a work which may bear comparison with any.
He also painted a picture in grotesque,
representing Three Sileni at their revels. Imitating the
celerity of execution displayed by his master, he introduced a
more sketchy style of painting, executed in a comparatively
off-hand manner.109

To these artists Nicophanes110 has also been added, an elegant
and finished painter, to whom for gracefulness few can
be compared, but for a severe and tragic style far inferior to
Zeuxis or Apelles. Perseus also belongs to this period, a pupil of
Apelles, who dedicated to him his work on painting. Aristides
of Thebes had for pupils his sons Niceros and Ariston. By
the latter of these artists, there is a Satyr crowned with a
chaplet and holding a goblet: two of his pupils were Antorides
and Euphranor, of the latter of whom we shall have to
make mention again.111

1 He was a native of Thasos, and father and instructor of Polygnotus.
As Pliny has already stated that Polygnotus flourished before the ninetieth
Olympiad, there is an inconsistency in his making mention of the son as
flourishing before the father. Hence Sillig, with Böttiger, is inclined to
think that there were two artists of this name, one about the seventieth,
and the other about the ninetieth Olympiad, the former being the father
of Polygnotus.

2 "Primusque gloriam penicillo jure contulit." Wornum considers
that "the rich effect of the combination of light and shade with colour is
clearly expressed in these words."—Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.
This artist, who was noted for his arrogance, is mentioned by other ancient
writers.

3 "Penicillus." This was the hair-pencil or brush, which was used by
one class of painters, in contradistinction to the stylus or cestrum used for
spreading the wax-colours. Painters with the brush used what we should
term "water-colours;" oil-colours, in our sense of the word, being unknown
to the ancients.

4 In "Magna Græcia," near Crotona, it is supposed. Tzetzes styles
him as an Ephesian.

5 This is probably the meaning of the words—"Artem ipsis ablatam
Zeuxim ferre secum." It is doubtful whether "ipsis" or "ipsi" is the
correct reading.

8 Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus say that this picture was
executed at Crotona, and not at Agrigentum. It is generally supposed to
have been the painting of Helena, afterwards mentioned by Pliny.

9 "Ex albo." "That is, in grey and grey, similar to the Chiariscuri
of the Italians."—Wornum, in Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

10 "Figlina opera." It is not improbable that this may allude to the
painting of fictile vases.

11 A.U.C. 666. As to this expedition of Fulvius Nobilior, see Livy, B.
xxxviii.

34 Phlius was the chief town of Phliasia, in the north-east of Peloponnesus.
It seems to be quite unknown to what events Pliny here alludes.

35 Possibly the naval victory gained by the Athenians under Chabrias
near Naxos, in the first year of the 101st Olympiad.

36 Which would make the course of study, as M. Ian says, extend over
a period of twelve years.

37 "Graphice;" equivalent, perhaps, to our word "drawing." "The
elementary process consisted in drawing lines or outlines with the graphis,
(or stylus) upon tablets of box; the first exercise was probably to draw a
simple line."—Wornum, in Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

45 "Secuit." Possibly meaning that he drew another outline in each
of these outlines. The meaning, however, is doubtful, and has occasioned
much trouble to the commentators. Judging from the words used by
Apelles and Protogenes, each in his message, it is not unlikely that the
"linea" or outline drawn by each was a profile of himself, and that the
profile of Protogenes was drawn within that of Apelles; who, on the
second occasion, drew a third profile between the other two, but with a still
finer line than either of them. In Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Biography,
art. Apelles, it is thus explained: "The most natural explanation of this
difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of
Apelles, Protogenes drew another, so as to divide it into two parallel
halves, and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same
manner."

46 The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is "Nulla dies abeat,
quin linea ducta supersit." "Let no day pass by, without an outline
being drawn, and left in remembrance."

62 "Cois." The first one was also painted for the people of Cos, by
whom it was ultimately sold to Augustus.

63 See Chapter 32 of this Book. That this is an erroneous assertion,
has been shown in Note 78 above.

64 Probably the weight of the panel, frame, and ornamental appendages.

65 This word was probably a title, meaning "Keeper of the temple."
Strabo tells us that the "megabyzi," or as he calls them, the "megalobyzi,"
were eunuch priests in the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, at Ephesus.

67 Probably the name of a rich sensualist who lived at Argos. A son
of the Attic orator Lycurgus, one of the sophists, also bore this name.

68 This name is supposed by Sillig to have been inserted erroneously,
either by Pliny, or by his transcribers.

69 Either the Argonaut of that name, who was killed by the Caledonian
Boar, or else, which is the most probable, a King of the Leleges in Samos,
with whom, according to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, originated
the saying, "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip;" in reference
to his death, by a wild boar, when he was about to put a cup of wine
to his mouth.

71 Anna Perenna, probably, a Roman divinity of obscure origin, the
legends about whom are related in the Fasti of Ovid, B. iii. l. 523. et seq.
See also Macrobius, Sat. I. 12. Her sacred grove was near the Tiber, but
of her temple nothing whatever is known. "Antoniæ" is another reading,
but no such divinity is mentioned by any other author.

72 Sillig (Dict. Anc. Art.) is of opinion that the reading is corrupt here,
and that the meaning is, that Apelles "painted a Hero and Leander."

77 Sir Joshua Reynolds discovers in the account here given "an artist-like
description of the effect of glazing, or scumbling, such as was practised
by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters."—Notes to Du Fresnoy.

79 He was son of Aristodemus, and brother and pupil of Nicomachus,
in addition to Euxenidas, already mentioned in this Chapter. He, Pausanias,
and Nicophanes, excelled, as we learn from Athenæus, B. xiii., in the
portraits of courtesans; hence their name, πορνόγραφοι.

80 It has been well remarked by Wornum, in the article so often quoted,
that "expression of the feelings and passions cannot be denied to Polygnotus,
Apollodorus, Parrhasius, Timanthes, and many others."

90 Supposed by Sillig to have been an allegorical painting representing
two of the sacred ships of the Athenians; but to have been mistaken in
later times for a picture of Ulysses and Nausicaa, a subject taken from
the Odyssey, B. vi. 1. 16, et seq. As to Paralus, said to have been the first
builder of long ships, or ships of war, see B. vii. c. 57.

An XML version of this text is available for download,
with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted
changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.